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Brandy Sivesind / Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader

David Almont, 20, of Sioux Falls adds more weight to a piece of equipment while working out last week at Fitness 19. Sioux Falls is bursting with new gyms offering various features to attract customers. / Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader

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The January fitness rush means city gyms are filling up again with people trying to tone their bodies.

It’s an annual ritual, but never have exercisers had so many choices. Sioux Falls is in the middle of a small-scale gold rush for fitness centers. Some are new, some are expanding, and each tries to market a distinct set of services.

Sivesind, operator of Fitness 19, which opened in 2006, estimates the number of centers has doubled the past five years to three dozen or more. Traffic at her gym triples in January in the afterglow of New Year’s and tapers off by March.

This year, she expects it to stay more brisk, not because exercisers are more dedicated, but because there are more of them. Fitness 19 added 1,000 square feet last fall to what now is an 8,000-square-foot training center at 57th Street and Western Avenue.

It’s the same around Sioux Falls, with gyms trying to secure a piece of the market.

There was much labor and sweat Friday afternoon at Kosama, a gym promoting “complete body transformation,” as 14 adults met in a flexibility and strength class in the Old Village Place mall near 69th and Western.

Welcyon, a fitness center at Park Ridge, caters to people 50 and older.

The Dharma Room next door is a yoga studio with a Sanskrit name summoning “the highest expression of your own nature.”

Speed is part of the package at CrossFit, a gym where power, running, rowing “and stuff that makes you breathe hard” compress into a daily workout the average member finishes in eight to 15 minutes, trainer Jeremy Westerman said.

Downtown, the YMCA is amid a $3 million upgrade. The city’s newest competitor appeared in December, when sponsors introduced GreatLife and the Malaska Golf and Fitness Club as an unlimited ticket to exercise centers and local golf courses for $50 a month.

“It definitely is a lot more competitive than it used to be. People look at what’s hot and they get in,” said Randy Hartz, owner of Complete Fitness at 915 S. Marion Road.

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Rana DeBoer, work well manager for the city, said Sioux Falls has had a spate of openings the past three years.

“As in any other industry, you want to keep things fun, new, interesting and challenging. If fitness isn’t fun, you’re sunk,” she said.

She hopes the abundance of gyms indicates a cultural shift after five decades trending toward inactivity and obesity.

“We’ve been talking about the health care crisis in our nation for a long enough time that organizations from health care to public health to workplaces to all the places in the fitness industry have been promoting living well as a lifestyle,” DeBoer said. “That’s starting to take effect.”

Gym operators said that while competition has increased, so has the pie.

“There’s plenty of business in Sioux Falls. The trend is toward more people understanding the importance of exercise,” said Seth Chapman, owner at Bodyworks, a 24-hour gym at 59th and Louise.

Most gyms offer weight lifting, aerobics, flexibility drills and coaching. Many promote the idea of accountability partners, although a typical image remains the solitary man or woman on a treadmill working against calories and the clock. A newer feature is a set of battling ropes, which are mammoth cords someone snaps as though a cowhand cracking a whip. Some centers seek a niche selling meal replacements, vitamins and fish oil.

Common to all is a recognition of basics. Chapman lists three — eat healthfully, enjoy a workout and be able to fit it in.

“Nutrition is 70 percent of it. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet,” he said.

The 605 Fit center, along the boardwalk at Eighth & Railroad, promotes “a mind-body connection” stressing weight dynamics in a small-group atmosphere. Members pay $12 a class or $80 to $90 for a month of sessions. Part of the regimen is aerial fitness, where group members use hammocks hanging from the ceiling to let body position and gravity produce maximum gain in the core muscles. The “air pushup” involves attaching two straps to let someone stand upright at 90 degrees, then tilt at 45 degrees for a chest press. “You need to be mindful of how you’re holding your body in different planes,” said owner Stacey Niewenhuis.

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The pitch is exclusivity at the dFine Private Fitness Club, which opened in 2012 at 69th and Minnesota. Co-owners Dave Burke and Mark Bartels, now with 200 members, aim to close it off at 300. “You shouldn’t have to wait to get onto the treadmill,” Burke said. Fees run $100 a month or $150 per couple.

“It doesn’t feel like a gym,” Burke said.

In the end, they’re all gyms and places of work.

Bobbie Tibbetts, 30, works full time and has a son, Will, 4, and daughter, Ryan, 2. She starts her day at 5:30 a.m. In an afternoon session last week with trainer Jenny Understock at Fitness 19, Tibbetts started by lying flat on her back. She stood up slowly, then sat and lay down again while keeping her left arm straight above her head as she held a weight resembling a 22-pound bowling ball.

She moved to another station, where she held a 40-pound bar behind her shoulders and did a series of lunges. She moved on to barbell lifts, then leapt onto a stool with both feet, returned to the floor and repeated the sequence several times. Exhaustion was obvious.